Of Earth and Sea

Chapter Six

★Time Skip another year (sorry not sorry)★

Their second year passed by rather slowly. Dan ended up making Phil cry at least 30 times from their ceaseless fighting about petty and pointless things. At one point, Dan told Phil to fuck himself and he ended up sleeping in the supply cupboard down the hall. It had been a long and uncomfortable night for Phil.

Close to the end of the year, Phil walked into their bedroom to find Dan and Niki perched on Dan's bed, kissing. Phil screamed and sprinted out of the room. He was mute for another two days until he blurted to PJ during lunch one day, "DAN AND NIKI KISSED AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FEEL ABOUT THIS OR WHY I WANT TO KILL BOTH OF THEM." He couldn't make eye contact with Dan for over a week. Needless to say, Dan and Phil still were not on the best of terms.

Now, at age 13, Dan was strolling through the aisles of the school train in search of his friends. He nearly missed the train because his mother decided five minutes before they had to leave was a good time to lecture Dan about his apparent disrespect. He had offhandedly told her to go away after she endlessly complained about his habits, which meant that Dan was a "disrespectful cunt" as she put it. He was nearly in tears by the time they finally left, ten minutes after they were supposed to.

Dan passed by Phil and his friends' compartment and stopped abruptly, stumbling to a halt. Nikita Cox, his kind-of girlfriend, was inside having a conversation with Dodie Clark. He tapped on the window, waving at Niki, who waved back, and then continued his journey through the train.

Eventually, he came across the open car, where Reah North, Patricia Bright and Troye Sivan Mellet were sitting around a table. "Hey, Dan! Come and join us!" Reah chimed upon his entrance, gesturing towards her. Dan stumbled over to their seats, nearly falling over as the train rattled down the tracks.

Dan sat down in the seat next to Rhea, smiling at his friends. "So, how were your summers?" he asked, looking between them. Troye shrugged and explained how he went back to Australia with his family for most of the break. Reah told a story about getting hit on at a resort in Tenerife and Patricia talked about running into their other friend Kat one day while shopping.

"So, how was your break, Dan?" Reah rebounded as Patricia finished her story. "We all talked about our summer, what did you do?" she added.

Dan shrugged, cleaning his nails for dirt. "Uh, not much, really. We didn't go anywhere," he replied bashfully, his cheeks turning crimson. "I went to see my friend from my old school, Jemma, though," he added as an afterthought.

The door to the carriage swung open and in walked Louise Pentland. "Lou Lou!" Dan screamed, jumping from his seat and tripping through the aisle to pull his best friend into a bear hug. "Oh my Lord, I missed you," he whispered.

Louise giggled and murmured back, "I missed you too, doofus." They pulled apart and Dan dragged Louise by her wrist over to the seats again. Since there was an empty table right across from it, Dan and Louise slipped in across from each other in the aisle seats. Dan grinned, his dimple popping. He hadn't smiled that much in months.

The fivesome fell into easy, comfortable conversation revolving around just about anything that came to mind. Louise ended up falling into the aisle at one point from laughing so hard at a joke Dan made. Their friend Nathan Zed joined them about half an hour into the train ride, claiming to have been talking to his friend outside the group, Mark.

"So, now, here I was sitting with my ass stuck in the toilet, full on sobbing, and guess who walks in?" Reah was saying, telling the story of how she got stuck in a toilet and her school crush had to help her get out.

Dan gasped. "Oh my God, it was Finn, wasn't it?" Louise squealed, grabbing Rhea's arm from across the aisle with both hands. Rhea nodded and the group exploded into laughter.